Peace Off: And Be What You Are

CHAPTER ONE

Peace Off!

And be the peace you are

Q: You speak about Trinity. But it’s only One, the beingness...

K: You can say Reality is realizing itself in trinity. So, trinity is a realization of Reality but not Reality. The Absolute Being is realizing itself as trinity.

Q: When I experience this...

K: When ‘I’ experiences this, it’s already too late. Whatever starts with ‘I’ is too late! When the doubtful ‘I’ starts something, doubtful experiences appear. From the doubtful experience of ‘I’ the doubtful experiences of whatever happens, happens. The false creates the false. The ‘I’ is already false and out of the false ‘I’, the falsity continues.

Q: It’s just out of curiosity, not a real question...

K: That’s the curious guy. The false is always curious about what is right. The unreal wants to become the real but it will never become real. It tries very hard to become real but the unreal will always remain unreal. And that what is real never needs to question itself because the real is real anyway. The unreal always has this tendency of making itself real but it will never succeed. You can go home now! [Laughter]

The whole Consciousness is only there because the ‘I’ is there. Since the ‘I’ is false, the Consciousness is false. Whatever happens is Consciousness. So there are only false happenings. But you cannot get rid of them because they don’t exist. It’s amazing!

Q: It’s too fast for me...

K: I have this problem, I cannot talk slowly. I’m the antidote of John De Ruiter. [Laughter]

Q: I had an insight that it is not trinity, it is only One...

K: Who says it is not three? Maybe it’s four. Maybe it’s not even one? Who needs to know that? And who now claims that it cannot be that? You have an insight? ‘I saw that there are no three’. Maybe there is a tree but no three. [Laughter]

But when there’s no trinity, there’s trinity because if there’s one who says there’s no trinity, there has to be trinity. You confirm that there’s trinity, just like an atheist who says there’s no God, confirms that there is one. Because the God who is not there, has to be so that he cannot be. It’s amazing! The atheists really confirm that there’s a God. So, you confirm that there is a trinity by saying there’s no trinity. If you say there’s no devil, there’s a devil. Amazing! If you say there’s no ‘me’, for sure there’s a ‘me’!

Q [Another visitor]: When I ask who is Ramana, it feels like an open space. But when I ask, ‘Who am I?’ the attention comes back to the body and it’s heavy and unpleasant. The body is disturbed...

K: If the question, ‘Who Is Ramana’ works better, than just forget the ‘Who Am I’, it’s the same. If Ramana works better for disappearance of ideas, than it’s your way. But don’t say, ‘Who Is Karl?’. Don’t go so far! [Laughter]

Just forget the ‘I’ and ask ‘Who Is Ramana’... maybe that works for you. Then you disappear in the cosmic-comic strip of life. Whatever works! Don’t just follow what is being said. Whatever works for you is right for you. Trust your inner guru because he knows best. Whatever brings the resonance is exactly what has to happen. There’s no religion for What-you-are. You have to lose your religion and all the religions around you because the only God you can trust is What-you-are. And if God wants to ask ‘Who Is Ramana?’, then God is right.

Q [Another visitor]: I cannot connect with people...

K: Be happy! [Laughter] Everyone wants to be detached and now she’s complaining that she’s too much detached. Be happy that you’re detached.

Q: My mind says, I must be open, I must love everyone...

K: I think you’re not in the right place here [Laughter] maybe you went to wrong teachers before. They have implanted the ideas like ‘you have to’. Or maybe in your surroundings they must have said, you must have an open heart. And you always fail and complain, ‘Bloody me, why am I so stupid? Why am I so closed? Poor me! Everyone else is open, but me’. Forget these open heart masters. They have the most closed heart – these open heart masters. Whoever claims that he has an open heart, has one heart too many. [Laughter]

This ownership of the heart knot is the only thing that makes you suffer. Having heart is hell! Being Heart, not knowing heart – that’s your natural state. But not having a heart, and especially not having an open heart! [Laughter] Then walking around and selling your open heart to everyone. Then saying ‘Oh, I see you, you’re still closed, follow me’. It’s like fishermen fishing for rotten fish and then selling it to others. The little fish of an open heart concept.

I had a visitor in Koh Samui and she said, you must have an open heart. Mooji confirmed me, Eckhart Tolle confirmed me. I said, ‘I, for sure, not’. [Laughter] Because whatever needs to be confirmed, is false. Finished! Especially when someone like Mooji or Eckhart Tolle confirms you. [Laughter] What an idea! The truth that you can agree to, for sure is not the truth. Fuck it all! [Laughter] You can sell that truth, you can make money with that truth because there are many buyers who want to buy the false because they’re living by the false. Everyone who wants to buy something wants to own something, and then he buys that what is false. What to do? It’s the biggest business on earth.

Q [Another visitor]: Can you talk about avoiding the void?

K: That’s a joke because you are the void who wants to avoid the void. That’s the joke! You’re afraid about That What-you-are. You are the void. And what is the nature of the void? The void is the absence of what?

Q: Everything...

K: ...of whatever you can imagine. There’s no imagining in the void. In the Absolute void, there’s no one who imagines something what can be imagined. It’s a total void – absolute absence of any concept of what you are and what you are not. And you’re afraid of That what youare, which is the Absolute absence of any presence of What-it-is and What-it-is-not – that’s a joke! You are That and you try to avoid that What-you-are. And by avoiding that What-you-are, you suffer! What a joke! It’s unexplainable why that happens.

Q: What to do?

K: You will only give up avoidance if you are destroyed by... whatever. It can only be done by What-you-are... but not by the one who wants to avoid something. And trying not to avoid is feeding that avoider. Whatever you try now from that position doesn’t work. Even trying not to avoid, is avoiding the avoidance. So, I sit here and tell you that you have to be in spite of the avoider avoiding what can be avoided... which is actually unavoidable. So, I sit here and tell you that you cannot avoid being What-you-are. So, just be it! Be That what you cannot not be, because that’s unavoidable, because it waits for you anyway. This phantom that rises, will disappear again. It came and it will be gone – this avoider. So why not be That in the presence of it or in the absence of it? Why wait for it to be gone? It will be gone one day and you will be the leftover again because the leftover cannot avoid itself. You are that Reality which is unavoidable.

And now you realize yourself as a person, so what? The person came and the person will be gone... hello, goodbye. So why wait for it to disappear to become What-you-are? You will never become it because you never lost What-you-are. So, just be that! The phantom collector will collect some stupid ideas on the way. Then it will be proud of his collection of the inside (insight) and the outside, but by none of that he can avoid that he will be gone one day, and you still will be What-you-are. All the collection of the scriptures, all the insights, all truth and all ideas came with this body and will go with this body; and you still will be What-you-are – naked as you are. You cannot avoid to be That what you were before, what you are now and what you will be. So why not be it now? That which has nothing to gain or to lose here! Come on!

So, what to do? There’s nothing to do but just being that what is unavoidable because you cannot avoid to exist as that What-you-are. And as you are That, you realize yourself as whatever. But waiting for someone like the Eagle of consciousness to go to become What-you-are, you may wait forever. The eagle will always be there, like consciousness always trying to know the consciousness. Mind will always mind the mind. So, you better don’t wait for it to end because maybe it is as infinite as you are. Imagine! Trinity or not... [Laughter] Waiting for Godot. Waiting for God to come, but God is already here.

But I can just blah, blah, blah about it. I cannot make you What-you-are. I can neither make you, nor unmake you. I cannot give anything, I cannot take anything away from you. So what? I can only point to That but you have to be it. And not be in love with the imaginary ‘I’. You have to put all your love, all your attention to That what never needs attention. This paradox you cannot solve. Because the Existence you are never needs any attention to exist and that existence that needs attention to exist, is false. That’s all!

Q [Another visitor]: The other day you said you love not to need any love...

K: You have to drop the relative love so that the love remains.

Q: The next day you said that we cannot let go of our ego because we love it too much...

K: Yes!

Q: So, what to do apart from sitting here?

K: You have to try, but you will fail. As I said before, Buddha failed. And in absolutely failing to know yourself, you are That what you cannot not be because you failed in every way. You even failed in failing. Then you are left as That what you are – the Absolute leftover – like a substratum that substrates everything, even that one who substrates everything. You abstract even the abstractor or you renounce the renouncer as Ramana said. Just renounce the renouncer and be What you are because What-you-are cannot be renounced. And the renouncer renouncing something is a false renouncer renouncing the false world. So, what is the gain of renouncing the world if there’s still one left who renounces something? Only the false needs to renounce something. So, renounce the renouncer and be what you are. But how to do that is the question? How to know yourself?

Then the scriptures tell you that you have to know yourself as you know yourself in deep-deep sleep – in the total absence of any presence of one who is or is not. There is a doubtlessness of What-you-are. There is no doubter and nothing that can be doubted in the absolute absence of any presence of living life or any concept...and still you are. So, every morning this wakes up and then you fall in love again. You cannot stop it. This loving-caring about whatever it is, is your nature. What can you do? You fall in love immediately at first sight every morning and then it starts again.

This helplessness I’m pointing at. You cannot not fall in love. Trying not to fall in love is already too late because there’s already a lover who tries not to be in love. It’s too late. And for What-you-are, it’s always too early because there’s no one who needs anything. But the moment you wake up, there’s one awake and then the lover is there and the lover loves and cares about what is. So, what to do?

Every intention is an intention of love; good intention everywhere! What to do? And you cannot leave what you are because you are That what is realizing itself and you cannot be more or less as you are. This is What-you-are. You are That – so be it! There’s no way out of it. And when you are That, there’s no imprisonment. There’s not even an idea of moksha or freedom or anything because you are That.

But now when you imagine that you are an inmate, that you are imprisoned in something, you confirm that ‘you’ need something. The only way out is to know yourself as That. But there’s no ‘knower’ in it. This is the kingdom of What-you-are; the kingdom of Heart and not the kingdom of a King. You want to be the King of this kingdom, the ruler of this universe. That will never happen! The Heart cannot be ruled by anything. And the kingdom of Heart is without a king. The king that appears in the morning... you must be jo-king! He can never be the king of Heart.

Buddha failed to rule his kingdom because he tried to end suffering, he tried to get enlightened. But he failed. He could not end the suffering of the world, he could not end whatever. So, he failed in every sense. From the absolute failing comes... No way out! Whatever you do is futile. You cannot change your realization. As Reality you don’t need to and that what is part of the realization has no power at all. The Absolute Dreamer doesn’t need to change the dream and that what is in the dream has no energy to change the dream. So, there’s Absolute failing. What to do?

Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!

Q [Another visitor]: You spoke about the deep sleep state...

K: The deep-deep sleep state. There’s a difference between deep sleep and deep-deep sleep state. The deep-deep sleep state is the Nature of the deep sleep state. Now there’s a presence and the presence of the presence is the Heart of this presence. So, the sleep of the sleep, the nature of deep-sleep, is the deep-deep sleep. That’s the Knowledge of deep-deep sleep. The knowledge of this moment is the presence of this presence.

Q: Can you talk about the fourth state of turiya?

K: I can talk about it! I rarely find something that I cannot talk about. [Laughter]

Turiya state would be your Natural state where you don’t know What-you-are and What-you-are-not anymore. There’s no knower who knows what he is and what he is not. There’s an absence of one who knows or doesn’t know what one is... that’s turiya. That’s your natural state, that’s samadhi.

Q: What is the difference with the deep-deep sleep state?

K: That is turiya. That is the pointer of the samadhi of the deep-deep sleep state because there’s no one. There’s no knower who knows what he is and what he is not. That’s turiya, your natural state.

Q: In this state whether the eyes are open or closed?

K: There’s no body. Who is there in deep-deep sleep?

Q: You are defining turiya as the samadhi of sushupti...

K: ...as Ramana did. The deep-deep sleep samadhi is the presence of the presence. That’s the fourth state. The three other states are the ‘I’ or the Awareness state, the ‘I Amness’ state and ‘I am the body’ state. But that what is the Heart of it, is turiya. That’s the heart of deep sleep. The Heart of the father, the Heart of the spirit and the Heart of the son.

Q: Is there one awake or asleep?

K: There’s no one – that’s the whole problem.

Q: That entity...

K: There’s no entity in it. That entit-tea that brings chai, cannot be there because That what is Heart is too shy to have an entity. [Laughter]

Q: So, is it a body location?

K: The body is just a fleeting shadow. But that what is the light is with and without the shadow – come on! There is no entity in Light.

Q: But it is walking around, eating and sitting...

K: ...and shitting... it’s a shit factory you know that. And the brain is part of the shit factory because whatever you feed the brain, produces shit.

Q: When Buddha woke up from the bodhi tree...

K: He failed, he failed to control his daemons. So, he had to allow them to appear. He failed to control his darkness. He failed in all senses and by that he became that what is light – the turiya.

Q: After that...

K: There is no ‘after’.

Q: Then he stood up from the tree...

K: There is no after that. That’s an imaginary Buddhist position. Buddha never went anywhere. He disappeared as what he believed to be and remained as That what he is!

Q: He got the teaching in the fourth state but then he came back...

K: No one comes back from there because no one can be there.

Q: Then who preached at Sarnath and Bodhgaya?

K: Three hundred years later there was a Buddhist convention. Buddha never said any word after that.

Q: No, that’s not true... [Laughter]

K: Buddha said there was never any Buddha that walked the earth. Buddha never said a word and that guy who...

Q: Whatever he said was after that....

K: You are just a historical mind.

Q: That’s false as well...

K: It’s all false. From a story two thousand and five hundred years ago, you want to use it now as your clever mind. You need a guy from two thousand five hundred years ago to make your point?

Q: I think that’s not the point...

K: No, that is the point! You talk from yourself and not from a Buddha two thousand five hundred years ago who may have lived or not. It’s a maybe.

Q: The point I was trying to make was...

K: Don’t use some help from someone else. [Laughter] Tell me something that comes from you.

Q: The shruti...

K: Shut up! Tell me something that comes direct from you and not from scriptures or Buddha or a guru that you met before. Tell me what is your opinion – only you. What is your original knowledge?

Q: From the little of what I can experience of the what-is state, it seems to me that it is not as blank as what you painted it. On the other side of the void there is a fullness...

K: It’s ‘foolness’. The foolness is fooling you.

Q: But then so is the void...

K: The void is just a pointer and it’s not a fullness or foolness.

Q: A pointer to what?

K: No one knows but that is what you are.

Q: Who comes back to say this?

K: No one comes back.

Q: Who is speaking now?

K: I always say, I have no idea. You are speaking out of scriptures and I have no idea.

Q: What I’m speaking, I also have no idea... [Laughter]

K: No ideas talking. [Laughter] That’s what I’m pointing out. Here now, there is Consciousness talking, Consciousness listening and nothing happens.

Q: You said you wanted a trigger, I’m just trying to make you happy... [Laughter]

K: If one pulls the trigger, one should be ready to be shot. [Laughter] But you know, you are like a duck which I can shoot forever and the duck will not die. [Laughter]

Q: Because it’s a phantom duck?

K: Yeah. It’s like in a fair you have shooting games in which ducks come up. You shoot all the ducks and they pop up again. I have fun shooting but I don’t expect the duck to be dead. I shoot the duck that will come back again anyway. [Laughter] Where would be the fun if the duck would really be shot? [Laughter] It’s absolutely fair.

Since the beginning, Consciousness talks and shoots all the imaginary ducks and nothing happens. You went to Papaji. He would say, ‘Nothing ever happened’. Everyone repeats that but this seed of ‘Nothing ever happens’ never reaches the soil because it doesn’t need to reach.

Q: I think there may be a different way of approaching the question. May be we are overlooking something... [Laughter]

K: The tenth man story again.

Q: [Laughing] What can I do?

K: You are What-you-are when you fail permanently not temporarily.

Q: It’s not my fault, is it?

K: But every night you fail temporarily.

Q: Why do you keep using this deep sleep model?

K: Because it’s a famous one.

Q: Shankara mentioned it but it is not complete...

K: Shankara wanted to win against Buddhism, that’s not my case. He was trying to defeat Buddhism but I’m not interested.

Q: I thought he was trying to explain it...

K: Explaining something what is unexplainable, it’s fantastic. He found a concept which maybe you cannot touch. But what is that concept?

Q: I don’t know, can you tell me?

K: I’m not interested. I’m not here to defeat anyone.

Q: Right now you are not speaking from the deep-deep sleep state. What are you speaking from?

K: I have no idea.

Q: Let’s call it the Karl’s state... [Laughter]

K: You can call it radi-Karl...